Vader headed back to his quarters. Ahsoka must have reported already, and he couldn't wait to hear what she had said. She would be back soon anyway, no usual transport ship would take as long to get back.
Her cover was extremely important. Vader speeded up a little, burning to hear what had happened. He reached the door and entered quickly. Obi Wan was sitting in front of the holo terminal and the twins were nowhere to be seen.
"Where are the children?", Vader asked and took off his mask. Obi Wan saw up to him, a little startled. "Sleeping.", he only said. Vader nodded. "Did Ahsoka contact you?", Vader continued. "She did.", Obi Wan said. Vader looked at him, waiting.
"Padmé was brought off planet this morning. She is on a ship now, we don't know where she is going. Ahsoka is coming back with the bacta." Vader clenched his hands to fists.
Now he had all the power the Emperor had promised him, and he still wasn't able to save and protect a single person. "Do we have any hints on where she might be?", he asked quietly.
"We know where she hopped on the station, but that must have been hours ago." Vader nodded. "Where?" "Polus. But looking there is pointless. They'll be long gone." Vader nodded again. "I know. But there is assigned space travel."
Obi Wan raised his brows. "You think a cruiser of slavers is assigned?" Vader shrugged. "It might be. It would be far less probable to be searched then."
Obi Wan nodded slowly. "That makes sense. You can check what ships where supposed to pass Polus today?" Vader nodded. "Easily. Although there'll be plenty, and we don't even know if the ship was scheduled."
Obi Wan frowned. "It's still a possible trace. You should look no matter how unhelpful it might be." "Of course I will." Vader would try anything to find his wife.
Obi Wan didn't know how to feel. He still wasn't trusting Vader one bit, and wanted to keep Padmé's position secret from him. He had only told him about Polus because he thought it wouldn't matter.
Padmé wasn't there after all. And yet it was like he was working together with the sith lord. A high pitched yawn caught the attention of both Obi Wan and Vader. Luke had woken up. "I dream about Mommy.", he said sleepily.
"She was sad." Vader frowned before picking his son up. "It is going to be alright, Luke. It was just a dream. We'll find your mother soon, I promise.", he said. Obi Wan let him perform his pretended love, like usually.
"Can you go back to sleep?", Vader then asked. Luke shook his head and pressed himself against Vader's chest. It hurt Obi Wan to see how Luke put a child's innocent trust into the wrong person.
His father would turn out to be a monster eventually, it was only a matter of time. Obi Wan already felt sorry for the twins, they would find out about their father's foul play later. Or at least Obi Wan hoped they would.
Otherwise they would follow him and Sidious into the darkness and would never return. He would stay with them as long as he could to teach them about their father as soon as they understood.
Vader held on to Luke with one arm, with the other he accessed the holonet over the holoterminal they had used earlier. He opened a few charts and plans and looked over them briefly, one by one, trying to find the data for Polus.
It didn't take too long until the planet appeared in a sort of profile. Vader examined the data, looking for the assigned space travel.
"There were only five major ships passing its orbit today. One of them was searched and turned out to be carrying nothing but food and supplies. So there are only four options left." Vader opened the profiles of the four ships.
Obi Wan stared at the ships that were hovering in the middle of the room, shining in blue light. "I can exclude that one.", Vader said and pointed on an imperial cruiser. "I know it's commander, he is a coward, not a slaver."
Obi Wan nodded. They had to check to most probable ships first, they could still come back to that one. The image disappeared, leaving only three behind.
One was a shaggy old piece of scrap metal not big enough to take on more than a handful people, assigned to ship weapons out of the outer rim. Vader erased it. "Too small.", he only said. Obi Wan agreed.
There was no way a whole organization of slavers kept their goods on a ship as small, there was no space for the slaves. Only two remained. "Bounty hunters.", Vader said, examining one of them.
"They have done a few things for the military, that's why they are tolerated. The ship wasn't inspected this time, but the last few. They always found nothing but a couple of death sticks and illegal weapons." Obi Wan frowned.
They sounded like simple scum, but not slavers. "And the last one?", Obi Wan asked. It was a big transport ship, without any extraordinary symbols on it. Vader shrugged. "It says it was shipping ores from Polus, it was never searched before."
"Then that's the one, isn't it?" Vader nodded, slowly. "It appears to be.", he said. "Where is it now?", Obi Wan asked. "I can find out.", Vader said calmly. It surprised Obi Wan that Vader didn't vow to kill everyone onboard.
Even though he probably would anyway. "When will Ahsoka be here?", Vader asked, as he started typing. "Not long from now, we could already expect her.", Obi Wan said. Vader nodded. "Good.", he said.
A map of the planets around Polus appeared. "Did the Empire plant tracking devices on every ship in the galaxy?", Obi Wan asked, hoping the answer would be no. "On some at least.", Vader only replied.
"And that one is one of them.", he added. Obi Wan raised his brows. "Seems like a very convenient coincidence.", he snarled. Vader rolled his eyes. "Alright. There are tracking devices on most of the ships. At least the official ones."
Obi Wan nodded. "So where is it?", he asked. "Huh...it seems like they are heading to the core. But they'll probably change course. Their next stop should be Taris." "Are they assigned to land there?", Obi Wan asked. Vader shook his head.
"They might just fly over it. I can't tell. Their next assigned landing is on Abregado-rae. I guess they could make it there without having any stops in between. If they land anywhere, it is to drop of the slaves." Obi Wan nodded.
All they had to do was fly to that ship, enter it and free the slaves. Entering it shouldn't be too hard for Vader. Obi Wan wasn't the expert but he assumed Vader could command anyone but the Emperor himself.
The transport shuttle was packed with bacta. Only the cockpit was left empty. This time, Ahsoka let the ship run on autopilot. It found its own way back to the executor. Ahsoka was sorry for Vader. He had hoped to see his wife once again.
And somehow, Ahsoka felt guilty too. If she had left only a day earlier, she would have found Padmé. If she hadn't wasted any time. If she had left as soon as Obi Wan told her where Padmé was by accident, she would have found her.
Ahsoka sighed as the imperial star destroyer appeared in her field of view. It was still intimidating, even though Ahsoka had spent the past ten days living on it. She watched the controls of her ship. The executor had seen her and was pulling her in.
She hoped they wouldn't open the cockpit to check for intruders. She looked around, estimating where she could hide if they did. There was a little ventilation shaft she would fit in if she had to.
She leaned back, waiting to enter the star destroyer's hangar. The huge, white hall had the same effect on Ahsoka than it had when she entered it the first time. Suddenly she felt tiny and weak like a bug.
Ahsoka waited silently, as she heard how the imperials loaded the bacta of the ship. She held her breath, filled with tension, preparing herself to hide. She heard a voice. "Alright that's all of it. Park the transporter over there."
She exhaled in relief. Not everything had to be hard. She waited once more as she felt how the ship was moving. When it finally came to a stop, Ahsoka remained where she was as steps walked away.
Only when everything was silent, she dared to move. She sneaked through the storage compartments on the ship before reaching the exiting ramp. She peeked outside, no one was looking in her direction and no one was very close to her.
Ahsoka took a deep breath. She had done this once before, and she knew the way. Vader had given her the code to his quarters too, so she wouldn't have to knock or contact him.
This was easy, she could do it. She sighed before hurrying out of the ship into the shadows. She got to the hangar's exit as fast as possible, avoiding any streaks of light that could have made her visible.
She waited for an opening, in which no one was walking through the doors, so she could rush through it. No one payed close attention to the furthest corners of the hallways anyway, which were where Ahsoka was standing.
It didn't take her too long before she reached Vader's quarters. Very little people were walking all the way here. She stepped forward to type in the combination and the doors opened. She saved herself inside and heard how the doors locked again.
She exhaled in relief. "I made it.", she said to Obi Wan who was sitting in front of the holoterminal. "Good job.", he only said without looking at her. "While you were gone, we found the ship Padmé is on right now. Or at least probably."
Ahsoka raised her eyebrows. "How did you find out?" Obi Wan pulled a grimace. "Vader has access to imperial surveillance and military data. He can spy on the entire bloody galaxy."
"Where is he?", Ahsoka asked as she came over to Obi Wan to drop beside him. "Did he already go to find the ship?", she added. Obi Wan nodded slowly. "I told him to wait but..." Ahsoka frowned.
"If we hadn't waited before Padmé would be here already. It's understandable." Obi Wan shrugged. "He just left and told me to look after the twins." Ahsoka smirked. "He trusts you with his own children. And yet you don't trust him."
Obi Wan rolled his eyes. "Not even the slightest bit. He's a sith, a master of trickery. I won't fall into his traps.", he stated. Ahsoka bit her lip. She refused to consider that Obi Wan was right. She felt Vader's emotions.